State Department and 2m-440 issue

Sat Jun 1 23:14:46 EDT 1996

I have read several comments on the reflector about a Mr. Warren Richards of
the State Dept. and his abusive language and comments made to a tax payer. As
a retired State Department employee, I am appalled that this type of action
may have occurred.
I STRONGLY suggest that copies of Mr. Richards comments be forwarded to:

The Honorable Secretary of State
Warren Christopher
U.S. Dept of State
Washington, DC  20520

Although the SecState will most likely not read correspondence on this issue,
his staff will and in turn will definitely question Mr. Richards supervisor
in strong terms.

Also Senator Jessie Helms, the head of the Senate foreign relation committee
should receive info on this incident with a complaint on Mr. Richards
dealings with the public. Most appropriately (and for more action) our fellow
Amateurs in North Carolina would be most effective in informing Senator
Helms.

DE  John - WA2WYR

>From ericr at access.digex.net (Eric Rosenberg)  Sun Jun  2 03:48:13 1996
From: ericr at access.digex.net (Eric Rosenberg) (Eric Rosenberg)
Date: Sat, 1 Jun 1996 22:48:13 EDT
Subject: State Department and 2m-440 issue
Message-ID: <199606020248.WAA13674 at svcs1.digex.net>

Addressed to: donovanf at sgate.com
              jfunk at adams.net
              cq-contest at tgv.com

I've been affiliated with two of the Little LEO licensees and wannabees  
for 5 years now (and know all of the remaining players).  So forgive me  
for taking the bandwidth to make a correction to W3LPL's otherwise  
accurate posting, along with some further detail as to who these people  
are. 

Orbcomm is a joint venture between Orbital Sciences Corporation of  
Dulles, VA (famous for the Pegasus launch vehicle) and Teleglobe  
Canada.

They have two satellites in orbit with plans to launch the remaining  
constellation beginning at the end of this year.  Satellites are being  
built by Orbital Sciences in Germantown, MD (former Fairchild facility)  
and launched on Pegasus XL launchers.  Uplinks are 2400 bps FSK in the  
148-149.9 Mhz band, user downlinks are 4800 bps FSK in the 137-138 MHz  
band, with beaconing in the 400-401 MHz band.  They have four (4)  
gateway facilites in teh USA running at significantly higher data  
rates. 

Starsys is now owned (80%) by GE American Communications. They were  
previously owned by NACLS (the US subsidiary of a French company that  
operates System Argos). They will most likely begin launching their  
constellation in early 1998.  The satellites are being built by Alcatel  
(Toulouse, France). Launch services have not been announced, but likely  
candidates are Cosmos or Roket (Russia), Pegasus, LLV (Lockheed Martin)  
or Delta.  They use the same frequencies as Orbcomm, except that they  
are using spread-spectrum technology. 

VITA is a non-profit development organization based in Roslyn, VA. They  
were teamed with CTA Incorporated, but suffered a launch failure in  
August 1995 (the first LLV-1 launch).  The VITA-CTA agreement ended and  
VITA is now partnered with Final Analysis, Inc. of Greenbelt, MD for  
the ownership of a single transponder on the FAISAT-2v satellite. This  
satellite is a hybrid US-Russian effort, and should be launched in the  
September timeframe on a Cosmos from Plesetsk, Russia. VITA's uplinks  
are the same as Orbcomm and Starsys, with the downlinks in the 400-401  
Mhz band. Final Analysis has an experimental license for the remainder  
of the satellite that allows for a limited number of user terminals to  
uplink at data rates from 1200 - 19200 bps GMSK in the 455-456 and  
459-460 Mhz band. Downlinks are in the 400-401 Mhz band, ranging from  
1200-38400 bps GMSK. 

Note that the operational licensees are limited in uplink transmission  
time to <450 ms per burst per terminal and those terminals cannot  
transmit on the same frequency within a 15 minute period. 

Eric  WD3Q
ericr at access.digex.net

>From ericr at access.digex.net (Eric Rosenberg)  Sun Jun  2 03:48:26 1996
From: ericr at access.digex.net (Eric Rosenberg) (Eric Rosenberg)
Date: Sat, 1 Jun 1996 22:48:26 EDT
Subject: Warren Richards e-mail
Message-ID: <199606020248.WAA13677 at svcs1.digex.net>

I, too, have been involved in this issue. For the past 5 years I've  
worked for one of the Little LEO licensees, and have attended my share  
or IWG and "industry" meetings.  

I now work for one of the wannabees and no longer attend the meetings.  
I know who put the amateur frequencies on the table and how it  
happened. I do *not* think it is necessary to name that company or  
individual (no, it wasn't me!), as the entire industry group appears to  
have decided to keep those and *all* other frequencies on the table. I  
can tell you that the person/company who made the original proposal had  
absolutely NO IDEA what would result, to say the least.  

Yes, it all boils down to money. The little LEO industry is in its  
infancy and all marketing studies say that there is a boatload of money  
to be made by *all* the players and potential players -- abut only if  
there is adequate spectrum for all of them to operate. At the moment  
there isn't, and the last WRC was a disaster for the industry (2 MHz of  
uplink frequencies were allocated in Region 2 only. 

Is the writing/fax/email having an effect. Can't say...Washington is a  
funny town when it comes to 'grass roots' movements.  I got calls from  
two of those listed in the K1ZZ editorial asking what was going on...I  
faxed them the ARRL letter!

Eric Rosenberg  WD3Q
Washington, DC 
ericr at access.digex.net

>From garyk9gs at solaria.sol.net (Gary Schwartz)  Sun Jun  2 04:55:50 1996
From: garyk9gs at solaria.sol.net (Gary Schwartz) (Gary Schwartz)
Date: Sat, 1 Jun 1996 22:55:50 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Oct 1995 FP/ -TO5M QSL's
Message-ID: <Pine.3.02.9606012205.A12431-a100000 at solaria.sol.net>

As of June 1, all direct QSL's for TO5M,
FP/N9AU, FP/ND9O, FP/W9OP and FP/K9GS have
been answered.

I have also been receiving quite a few QSL
requests for the March 1993 TO5M operation
that took place from Martinique/ FM.

I AM NOT THE QSL MANAGER FOR THIS STATION/
OPERATION.

Thanks for all your patience and support and
see you from our next DX-Pedition!

73,
Gary K9GS 
   __________________
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 /   FP/K9GS, TO5M   |Society of Midwest Contesters |____________________
(                    |   garyk9gs at solaria.sol.net   |Secretary/Treasurer/
 \   Gary Schwartz   |   K9GS at WA9KEC.WI.USA.NOAM    | Greater Milwaukee/
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